The Consumer Goods
"A brand new, undeniably infectious, and activist pop unit." -Grant Lawrenc… Read Full Bio ↴"A brand new, undeniably infectious, and activist pop unit." -Grant Lawrence, CBC Radio Three.
"So extremely good that it almost defies description." -Grant Hamilton, Brandon Sun.
"Bare-knuckled black comedy bordering on surrealism, diabolically sharp and intricate left-wing zingers." - Rupert Bottenberg, Montreal Mirror.
........................................
IN BRIEF
The Consumer Goods have reached the end of their first five-year plan having established themselves as a staple of the Canadian very-indie pop scene. Their wickedly incisive and politically-charged music has earned both praise and contempt, but rarely disinterest. Between 2005-2010, they released three records and scored two significant βhitsβ including ββ¦Sam Katz,β a polemic against Winnipegβs mayor that went into heavy rotation on local radio, much to Katzβs embarrassment, and βHockey Night in Afghanada,β an anthemic call for the separation of hockey and war-mongering that was recently featured among ChartAttack magazineβs βBest Songs Ever.β The band also toured Canada extensively, graced the cover of Uptown Magazine, charted in over 50 independent radio stations in Canada and the US, were nominated for a CBC Bucky Award and an ISSA award, hit airwaves in Havana, Cuba, and made top-ten lists in the Netherlands. Principally powered by activist/teacher Tyler Shipley, the band is now based in Toronto and preparing a fourth record.
HISTORY
The Consumer Goods formed in Winnipeg, MB in 2005 around a set of angry and unflinching emotional responses to a world on its head. Songwriter Tyler Shipley, then 23, surrounded himself with a cadre of musicians drawn from the best of Winnipegβs always-fertile music scene and charged them with animating the angst that gave that first crop of songs its edge. The result was a shimmering and ambitious piece of work that surprised critics expecting a learning-curve debut from a local artist.
POP GOES THE PIGDOG! (2005-2006)
Complete with DIY artwork stamped with a hand-carved image of anti-capitalist graffiti, βPop Goes The Pigdog!β shot to the top of local charts and established the band in the national scene with much exposure on CBC radio. In particular, critics seemed to agree that what set this record apart was that its anger felt neither contrived nor naive; unlike so much of what passes as βpoliticalβ music, this was an articulate and thoughtful engagement with the world. Niether preaching nor posing, Shipley tried to locate himself within the structures he critiqued, displaying a complexity that made this, according to Uptown Magazine, "one of the most impressive debuts by a Winnipeg band in many years."
HAPPY BIDET (2007)
Indeed, that insistence on intellectual rigor is what made 2007βs βHappy Bidetβ arguably the best in the bandβs catalogue. Written during a tumultuous 8-month span that saw Shipley move from the comfortable Winnipeg scene to the bustle and alienation of Toronto, the record featured a band at the height of its craft; its thirteen tracks were recorded in just one day, but come off as a perfectly polished meditation on an American Empire at war with everyone and everything. The record seemed to tap directly into the absurdity of Bush-era idiocy and violence, and the folly that a generation was striding arrogantly into. Unlike itβs predecessor, βHappy Bidetβ turned the anger into a sublime joke; Shipley lamented the attack on womenβs reproductive rights by imagining George Bush looking for a back-alley coat-hanger abortion (βRovie Wadeβ) and advised the sun to stop shining in Arab skies, lest it be labelled a terrorist and bombed by American F-16s (βSun Oh Sun.β)
In a world so screwed up, ridiculing the bad guys seemed like the only way to cope, and the glowing response to the record seemed to confirm that. The mainstream radio popularity of ββ¦Sam Katz,β a clever polemic aimed at Winnipegβs mayor (βI know itβs not easy running a city, a business and a baseball team,β says Shipley mockingly), indicated that there was a real appetite for political critique that came with a wink and a nod. Katz's office refused to comment on the song and the Winnipeg Sun - a nominally Katz-supporting paper - called 'Happy Bidet' "one of 2007's best local releases." Critics almost universally raved about the record, which was nominated for a CBC Radio 3 Award, and the band became a legitimate fixture in the Canadian indie consciousness.
THE ANTI-IMPERIAL CABARET (2008-2009)
But somewhere along the way, giggling behind the backs of George Bush and Dick Cheney became an inadequate outlet for Shipleyβs ever-present preoccupation with injustice. Unwilling to engage in self-satisfied mockery at the expense of a caste of already-unpopular right-wingers, the Consumer Goodsβ third release was a sharp re-engagement with the outrage that characterized βPop Goes The Pigdog!β coloured by a manic and diabolical absurdity that reflected a similarly erratic period in Shipleyβs personal life. βThe Anti-Imperial Cabaretβ chose harder targets - relentlessly satirizing the police, the military, the state β and insisted on bringing the critique to Canadian soil, even implicating the CBC in βHockey Night in Afghanada,β a devastating and unflinching indictment of the violence and racism legitimated by Don Cherry and Ron MacLeanβs weekly intrusion into Canadiana-at-large.
Despite the immense popularity of that particular song, the record did not garner the same kind of critical praise, as commentators seemed reluctant to endorse the take-no-prisoners approach. Even Shipley himself acknowledged that βThe Anti-Imperial Cabaretβ produced a certain kind of discomfort for its unapologetic denunciations, in which even the author was not spared. But if this unforgiving approach alienated some listeners it was, ironically, also the recordβs strength; while ostensibly plunging off the lyrical deep end, it was ultimately an honest reflection of Shipleyβs own struggles to grapple with his own position in a profoundly fucked up world.
It shouldn't be a surprise, then, that in the end, 'Cabaret' has been the band's best-selling record and maintains its popularity years later. In late 2010, 'Hockey Night in Afghanada' was to be highlighted in a ChartAttack feature as one of the "best songs ever." Nonetheless, the ambitious cross-Canada tour that accompanied the release in 2008 was remarkably apt; after about a dozen shows, and with momentum growing, Shipley suffered a serious back injury and the tour was cut short by his hospitalization and recovery. A breaking point was reached.
BUT WE DON'T SHOOT PISTOLS (2010-2011)
It was exactly what was needed. In the following year, Shipley tried to answer the questions he had asked himself on βThe Anti-Imperial Cabaret,β throwing himself deeper and more effectively into the political struggles that had animated so much of the Consumer Goodsβ catalogue. It was a much-needed intervention. In 2009, Shipley recorded a bluegrass record under his own name documenting a three-month strike at the university where he taught, and in 2010 he emerged with a new band and a somewhat different approach. The ruthless irony he employed on earlier projects was no longer tenable; irony had become the new black, applied with post-modern detachment to any situations or questions that seemed complicated, in order to avoid the hard work of determining and acting on ethical principles.
The moment demanded a re-engagement with sincerity, and the Consumer Goods β never inclined to take the easy way out β are embracing the challenge with vigour. In June 2010, they sang βwe got friends beaten by the cops; the older we get the beatinβ never stops,β only hours before finding themselves facing riot cops on Queen Street. More than ever, this is a band that is engaged in the moment. Their fourth record, tentatively titled "But We Don't Shoot Pistols," will be produced by Dale Morningstar (Gord Downie, Rock Plaza Central, Thrush Hermit, Julie Doiron, Godspeed You! Black Emperor) and is to be recorded on the Toronto Islands in February 2011. The record will have national distribution and promotion and will likely be released in the summer of 2011.
"So extremely good that it almost defies description." -Grant Hamilton, Brandon Sun.
"Bare-knuckled black comedy bordering on surrealism, diabolically sharp and intricate left-wing zingers." - Rupert Bottenberg, Montreal Mirror.
........................................
IN BRIEF
The Consumer Goods have reached the end of their first five-year plan having established themselves as a staple of the Canadian very-indie pop scene. Their wickedly incisive and politically-charged music has earned both praise and contempt, but rarely disinterest. Between 2005-2010, they released three records and scored two significant βhitsβ including ββ¦Sam Katz,β a polemic against Winnipegβs mayor that went into heavy rotation on local radio, much to Katzβs embarrassment, and βHockey Night in Afghanada,β an anthemic call for the separation of hockey and war-mongering that was recently featured among ChartAttack magazineβs βBest Songs Ever.β The band also toured Canada extensively, graced the cover of Uptown Magazine, charted in over 50 independent radio stations in Canada and the US, were nominated for a CBC Bucky Award and an ISSA award, hit airwaves in Havana, Cuba, and made top-ten lists in the Netherlands. Principally powered by activist/teacher Tyler Shipley, the band is now based in Toronto and preparing a fourth record.
HISTORY
The Consumer Goods formed in Winnipeg, MB in 2005 around a set of angry and unflinching emotional responses to a world on its head. Songwriter Tyler Shipley, then 23, surrounded himself with a cadre of musicians drawn from the best of Winnipegβs always-fertile music scene and charged them with animating the angst that gave that first crop of songs its edge. The result was a shimmering and ambitious piece of work that surprised critics expecting a learning-curve debut from a local artist.
POP GOES THE PIGDOG! (2005-2006)
Complete with DIY artwork stamped with a hand-carved image of anti-capitalist graffiti, βPop Goes The Pigdog!β shot to the top of local charts and established the band in the national scene with much exposure on CBC radio. In particular, critics seemed to agree that what set this record apart was that its anger felt neither contrived nor naive; unlike so much of what passes as βpoliticalβ music, this was an articulate and thoughtful engagement with the world. Niether preaching nor posing, Shipley tried to locate himself within the structures he critiqued, displaying a complexity that made this, according to Uptown Magazine, "one of the most impressive debuts by a Winnipeg band in many years."
HAPPY BIDET (2007)
Indeed, that insistence on intellectual rigor is what made 2007βs βHappy Bidetβ arguably the best in the bandβs catalogue. Written during a tumultuous 8-month span that saw Shipley move from the comfortable Winnipeg scene to the bustle and alienation of Toronto, the record featured a band at the height of its craft; its thirteen tracks were recorded in just one day, but come off as a perfectly polished meditation on an American Empire at war with everyone and everything. The record seemed to tap directly into the absurdity of Bush-era idiocy and violence, and the folly that a generation was striding arrogantly into. Unlike itβs predecessor, βHappy Bidetβ turned the anger into a sublime joke; Shipley lamented the attack on womenβs reproductive rights by imagining George Bush looking for a back-alley coat-hanger abortion (βRovie Wadeβ) and advised the sun to stop shining in Arab skies, lest it be labelled a terrorist and bombed by American F-16s (βSun Oh Sun.β)
In a world so screwed up, ridiculing the bad guys seemed like the only way to cope, and the glowing response to the record seemed to confirm that. The mainstream radio popularity of ββ¦Sam Katz,β a clever polemic aimed at Winnipegβs mayor (βI know itβs not easy running a city, a business and a baseball team,β says Shipley mockingly), indicated that there was a real appetite for political critique that came with a wink and a nod. Katz's office refused to comment on the song and the Winnipeg Sun - a nominally Katz-supporting paper - called 'Happy Bidet' "one of 2007's best local releases." Critics almost universally raved about the record, which was nominated for a CBC Radio 3 Award, and the band became a legitimate fixture in the Canadian indie consciousness.
THE ANTI-IMPERIAL CABARET (2008-2009)
But somewhere along the way, giggling behind the backs of George Bush and Dick Cheney became an inadequate outlet for Shipleyβs ever-present preoccupation with injustice. Unwilling to engage in self-satisfied mockery at the expense of a caste of already-unpopular right-wingers, the Consumer Goodsβ third release was a sharp re-engagement with the outrage that characterized βPop Goes The Pigdog!β coloured by a manic and diabolical absurdity that reflected a similarly erratic period in Shipleyβs personal life. βThe Anti-Imperial Cabaretβ chose harder targets - relentlessly satirizing the police, the military, the state β and insisted on bringing the critique to Canadian soil, even implicating the CBC in βHockey Night in Afghanada,β a devastating and unflinching indictment of the violence and racism legitimated by Don Cherry and Ron MacLeanβs weekly intrusion into Canadiana-at-large.
Despite the immense popularity of that particular song, the record did not garner the same kind of critical praise, as commentators seemed reluctant to endorse the take-no-prisoners approach. Even Shipley himself acknowledged that βThe Anti-Imperial Cabaretβ produced a certain kind of discomfort for its unapologetic denunciations, in which even the author was not spared. But if this unforgiving approach alienated some listeners it was, ironically, also the recordβs strength; while ostensibly plunging off the lyrical deep end, it was ultimately an honest reflection of Shipleyβs own struggles to grapple with his own position in a profoundly fucked up world.
It shouldn't be a surprise, then, that in the end, 'Cabaret' has been the band's best-selling record and maintains its popularity years later. In late 2010, 'Hockey Night in Afghanada' was to be highlighted in a ChartAttack feature as one of the "best songs ever." Nonetheless, the ambitious cross-Canada tour that accompanied the release in 2008 was remarkably apt; after about a dozen shows, and with momentum growing, Shipley suffered a serious back injury and the tour was cut short by his hospitalization and recovery. A breaking point was reached.
BUT WE DON'T SHOOT PISTOLS (2010-2011)
It was exactly what was needed. In the following year, Shipley tried to answer the questions he had asked himself on βThe Anti-Imperial Cabaret,β throwing himself deeper and more effectively into the political struggles that had animated so much of the Consumer Goodsβ catalogue. It was a much-needed intervention. In 2009, Shipley recorded a bluegrass record under his own name documenting a three-month strike at the university where he taught, and in 2010 he emerged with a new band and a somewhat different approach. The ruthless irony he employed on earlier projects was no longer tenable; irony had become the new black, applied with post-modern detachment to any situations or questions that seemed complicated, in order to avoid the hard work of determining and acting on ethical principles.
The moment demanded a re-engagement with sincerity, and the Consumer Goods β never inclined to take the easy way out β are embracing the challenge with vigour. In June 2010, they sang βwe got friends beaten by the cops; the older we get the beatinβ never stops,β only hours before finding themselves facing riot cops on Queen Street. More than ever, this is a band that is engaged in the moment. Their fourth record, tentatively titled "But We Don't Shoot Pistols," will be produced by Dale Morningstar (Gord Downie, Rock Plaza Central, Thrush Hermit, Julie Doiron, Godspeed You! Black Emperor) and is to be recorded on the Toronto Islands in February 2011. The record will have national distribution and promotion and will likely be released in the summer of 2011.
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The Consumer Goods Lyrics
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